Cervical Cancer: Prevention and Treatment

Cervical cancer is the commonest cancer cause of death among women in developing countries and efforts to prevent the disease using newer approaches and HPV vaccination need to be explored. Detection of cervical cancer at an early stage is associated with excellent survival but most women in developing countries present with advanced and often untreatable disease, with very poor survival. The ratio between incidence and mortality from cervical cancer remains very high, largely due to lack of access to appropriate anti-cancer therapies in developing countries. In developed countries with functional screening programs, cervical cancer has been rendered a relatively rare disease. Ongoing efforts to refine the characteristics of screening tests continue, as does implementation of current HPV vaccines for the primary prevention of cervical cancer. [Discovery Medicine 14(75):125-131, August 2012]